


nuts and bolts

by 101places



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Episode: s04e15 Self Control, Episode: s06e13 New Life, F/M, Gen, s7 spec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 08:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20189623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/101places/pseuds/101places
Summary: FitzSimmons discuss Agent Coulson, LMDs and the next step of their plan.( AKA : lmd........ life model.......... dad....... )





	nuts and bolts

**Author's Note:**

> this is another one of the fic ideas i got after the finale. i have another few bouncing around in my head so we'll see when they get done!
> 
> as always kudos/comments are always appreciated! i hope you enjoy!

Fitz rubbed his hands over his face, as if he could just wipe the stress of the past few days away that easily. He let out a heavy breath, then opened his eyes and looked over at Enoch, who was wearing the exact same expression that he always wore.

“So,  _ basically _ , we have next to no resources, next to no man-power, and next to no plan.” Fitz summarised.

Enoch frowned. “I do have the beginnings of a plan, Fitz. I simply do not have every piece required to put it into motion, yet.”

When Enoch had first arrived and dramatically swooped in to save Simmons and Fitz himself, he had made it sound as if he had a solid idea of where to go next. As it happened, that wasn’t entirely true. Fitz thought with some degree of irritation that he should have known better than to put all of his eggs in the renegade Chronicom basket.

“Alright, alright.  _ Fine _ . What do you need?”

“Your expertise, to build a time machine.”

“That’s already  _ one _ lost cause, but I feel like there’s more.”

“An expert on SHIELD history.”

“Enoch.” Fitz shot Enoch a furious look. “ _ Why did you not say this before we told Koenig to go into hiding _ ?”

Enoch blinked. “Koenig was not the expert I was referring to.”

“Who the bloody hell else-” Fitz pinched his temples. “Please don’t tell me that you think I have Nick Fury on- on speed dial.”

Enoch stared at Fitz blankly.

“ _ I’m not Coulson, Enoch! _ ”

“Philip J. Coulson could be an acceptable substitute.”

Fitz laughed bitterly. “Yeah, yeah. Coulson really would make everything better, wouldn’t he? You’re just forgetting one  _ tiny _ little detail there. He’s  _ dead _ . His bloody evil clone is dead  _ too _ .”

“You are not wrong.” Enoch conceded, “However, we did confiscate the Framework technology from my fellow Chronicom, including-”

“...Coulson’s brain scans?” Fitz brought his hand down from his face, looking at Enoch with a strange expression. He seemed to consider what Enoch was suggesting for a moment, before shaking his head firmly. “No.  _ No _ . That’s not- uh- that’s not- it’s not ethical, or- Simmons would never agree to it. That’s a bad- that’s a really, really bad idea, Enoch.”

“An expert in SHIELD history  _ is _ necessary, if we intend to prevent my fellow Chronicom from succeeding in their own plan.”

“Then we’ll find- we’ll- we’ll find someone else, we can’t- there’s no way- we can’t do that. No. No way.”

Enoch nodded once. “As you wish.”

.

Simmons looked at the pitiful gathering of agents and sighed softly, turning to Agent Diaz at her side.

“Is this it?” She asked.

Agent Diaz looked back at her. “I’m sorry, Agent Simmons. They executed everyone who followed protocol, and I didn’t want to risk losing more bodies by spending too long looking for survivors- there were whole sections of the base I couldn’t gain access to. I don’t even know what happened to the prisoner.”

Simmons sighed. She’d had her misgivings about Snowflake, but this isn’t what she had wanted. Despite the bad odds, she hoped that the girl had found a way to escape to safety.

“Any word from Agent Piper?” Simmons tried a different angle.

Agent Diaz still just shook her head. “We haven’t been able to re-establish secure communication since the Chronicom scrambled it.”

“Piper’s smart. She’s likely staying under the radar for her own safety.” Simmons said, though she wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure Diaz or herself at this point. She took a step back. “Let me know if anything changes, for the better or the worse.”

Diaz nodded and turned back to the small crowd of agents, continuing on with their work, while Simmons started off down the corridor of their new ( temporary ) HQ to update Fitz on the situation at her end.

It didn’t take long to find him, standing in the room that they’d chosen to store the technology they had managed to smuggle out of the Lighthouse. It was a rather eerie sight, seeing him surrounded by Framework technology, but she chose not to dwell on that thought for long, stepping into the room.

“Still no word from Piper.” She reported, “...Or the rest of our team.”

Fitz looked over, a sympathetic expression on his face. “You’re still holding out hope.”

“Of course I am!” Simmons spoke forcefully. “I have to. They must have gotten out of there, Fitz. I refuse to believe that they’re all gone. There has to be a way for this to end well for us, after everything that we’ve been through.”

Fitz crossed the room, pulling her into a hug and pressing a kiss to her hair. “Enoch thinks there is.”

She pulled back from him a fraction so she could look up at him. “Right. Did he tell you his plan.”

“Yeah, but you’re not going to like it…”

“Honestly, Fitz, at this point I’m willing to consider anything.”

“Okay. Well, hold onto that thought.” He nodded towards the Framework apparatus. “He wants to upload Coulson’s brain scans onto an LMD.”

“No.”

“You did say that you’d consider-”

“And now I’m saying no.”

Fitz frowned. He could understand her hesitance- their previous encounters with LMD technology had been far from pleasant- but it was unlike her to be so dead set against an idea without even considering it, especially with these stakes.

“I don’t like it either, but he said it might be our only option. The Chronicom are going to target weak points in SHIELD’s history, we need an expert in SHIELD history to combat that. Coulson’s all we have access to.”

“I don’t care about the reasoning. We’re not doing that.”

“That’s very unscientific of you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“Uh- um-” Fitz realised that he may have overstepped. “-I just- uh- I mean- not considering the- uh- the benefits- it’s not like you. You’re not normally afraid of the risks.”

She pulled back from him. “What makes you think that I am afraid?”

“Uh.” Fitz chuckled nervously, wishing he could take back that phrasing. “No - Nothing, I- I just- that’s not what I meant.”

“ _ Really _ ?” Simmons asked skeptically, “Because you sounded very sure of yourself. For curiosity's sake, though, let’s ask ourselves- I wonder what could have happened to make me suspicious of LMDs? I wonder what  _ possibly _ could have-”

“Alright! I get it!”

Simmons scoffed and shook her head. “We should just destroy this technology already and be done with it.”

“That’s a bit of a nuclear option.” Fitz frowned. “There’s a lot of good technology here-”

“ _ Good _ technology?”

“I just mean that it works!” Fitz exclaimed, beginning to grow frustrated. “Jemma, I am  _ painfully aware _ of how much- how much destruction and- and death the Framework and LMDs caused. I don’t know what’s so- so wrong about me wanting it to be able to do some  _ good _ as well.”

Simmons edge softened a degree. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I just think that we should consider other options first.”

“...Okay.”

Simmons closed the space between them and reached out to grasp his hands, gently pulling him out of the room and letting the door shut behind them.

.

It was a few days later, at night, when the topic was brought up again.

The day had been long, as they had finally made the journey to recover the Zephyr. There was no sign of their team at the temple, and even Simmons was having to begin to acknowledge that the odds of any of their team having survived the Chronicom’s attack were slim. 

Both Fitz and Simmons were exhausted both mentally and physically, yet when they returned to their bed, they found themselves just laying there awake instead of dropping off to sleep.

“Do you remember those rumours about Coulson back at SciOps?” Fitz broke the silence after he had given up on sleep for the time being.

Simmons tilted her head up to look at him, frowning lightly. “Of course I do.”

“I, uh, I remember hearing one- said he beat Thor in a fistfight and took him into SHIELD custody single-handedly.”

Simmons snorted. “I heard one that he babysat Tony Stark.”

“That one I can imagine.” Fitz sighed. “If he could babysit Daisy  _ way back then _ , then I, uh, I think he could deal with Tony Stark.”

“I’ll tell her that you said that.” Simmons grinned, then her smile faltered as she remembered the terrible situation that they were in.

A heavy silence fell between the two, their minds both drifting to the same place. While Simmons was relieved that Fitz, at least, was safe and still with her, her heart broke every time she remembered that she may never see the rest of her friends- her family, really- again.

“You know…” Fitz began quietly. “Enoch’s plan is probably the best chance we have at seeing them again.”

“Fitz…”

“I just- I get it, Jemma. I know, I- I screwed up, I know- I know everyone got hurt and- and people died, and I’m so- I’m- I’m so sorry about everything that happened. But this wouldn’t be like that. We can take precautions. We can make sure it doesn’t go wrong. You excel at preparation, remember?”

Simmons reached over and placed a hand on his arm. “Let’s… let’s not talk about this now. Okay? I just… I want to have one night where we don’t have to think about these things.”

Fitz gave a tiny nod. “Okay. I can do that.”

Simmons curled up closer against him, resting her head against his chest and counting the steady beat of his heart under her ear, grateful that, despite everything, she was still able to feel him beside her.

.

It was a week before the topic was broached again. In that week, FitzSimmons had started their work on upgrading the Zephyr, having left the hunt for missing agents to Agent Diaz. Enoch still insisted upon the need for time travel and Coulson, but those were two huge tasks that Simmons wasn’t certain that she even wanted to tackle so, for now, the Zephyr was the center of their focus.

For the third time in a row, Fitz was met with failure, and in a wave of irritation he punched the wall to his side, cursing under his breath when all the action did was cause his fist to throb.

Simmons dropped what she had been working on and walked over with a concerned frown. “Is everything alright?”

“No.” Fitz said, his accent growing thicker in his frustration. “Nothing’s alright. How- how would anything be al- alright? Nothing we do matters, we’ve already lost!”

“You need to slow down and take a breath.” Simmons spoke, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. “We haven’t lost yet.”

Fitz took a breath, but not much tension left him. “Everyone’s gone, Jemma.”

“I know.” She looked away from him. “But we can’t give up. Even if… even if they are all dead, we can’t just lay on our backs and surrender. We have to keep fighting.”

“Fighting how? You won’t even consider Enoch’s plan.”

“Fitz, that’s not… that plan would cause more issues than it would solve. Even if we could figure out time travel, we’ve seen the potential ramifications of that. What if we created another impossible time loop, or a paradox? We don’t know what we’re dealing with. It would be irresponsible to meddle with it.”

“Okay. Okay, I- I agree with that, but- what about the LMD-”

“I’ve already told you how I feel about that.”

“No! You haven’t!” Fitz took a step back, shaking off Simmons’ hand. “You’ve told me you’re dead-set against it, and I thought I understood, but- but this isn’t- we’d get to program him! He wouldn’t be anything like AIDA, he’d be a- a genuine recreation of Coulson. If anything he’d more like- like that LMD of May, and-”

“Please stop.”

“I-” He groaned, pressing his palm into his closed eyes. “If there’s something you’re not telling me you- you’ve got to. I don’t- I don’t want to force you to, but I don’t know how you can expect me to do anything right if you won’t give me all of the relevant information. I don’t- I don’t know why you’re so against the LMDs. It can’t just be AIDA, it-”

“What do you think happened after you were put into the Framework, Fitz?”

Fitz moved his hands away from his face slowly and blinked. “Uh-”

“Because if you  _ really _ want to know why I think that this is a terrible idea then, fine, I’ll tell you. Everyone didn’t just mysteriously vanish. You were switched out with LMDs. LMDs that tried to capture Daisy and I, using any means necessary.”

Fitz listened to her speaking silently, his eyes growing wide with horror.

“I hate AIDA, yes, and that is a contributor to my hesitation to even consider LMD technology. But you have no idea how frightening it is to watch someone with the face of someone you love try so hard to hurt you.”

Fitz looked away. The truth of it was that he did know how that felt. He had seen it when Daisy had been under Hive’s sway, and the experience had been terrifying.

“...I had no idea that happened.” He finally spoke up after a period of silence. “Why did you never tell me?”

Simmons laughed bitterly. “I did tell you, actually. Before you died. You saw that scar on my leg- I know you’ve noticed it now, too, and I know that you’ve been wanting to ask about it.”

Fitz huffed and ran his hand through his hair. “You know I don’t remember anything he-”

“ _ Yes _ , I know,” Simmons snapped, then sighed and tried to force herself to calm down. “It was just a difficult conversation. I wasn’t overly keen on repeating it.”

“What happened?” Fitz asked, fuelled by morbid curiosity.

“He tried to convince me that I was the LMD. Ended up stabbing my leg and knocking me out. I had to kill-  _ deactivate _ \- him to get away. I wasn’t… completely convinced that it hadn’t been you. When Daisy found me I could barely think straight.”

Fitz felt as if the air had been knocked out of his lungs. He hadn’t assumed that it had been the LMD of himself that had targeted her. “I- I meant- I meant what happened when- when you told-”

“...Oh.” Simmons glanced away and brought her hand up to rub at her neck. “You didn’t say much, really. I think you were worried about making me feel worse, but… I could tell that it was just another thing for you to blame himself over. I didn’t know how to tell you that I didn’t blame you for it.”

Fitz hesitated, then made up his mind, closing the space between them and pulling her into his arms. She sunk into his embrace immediately, resting her head against his shoulder.

“You know…” he began tentatively, “It wouldn’t be like that, either. Those LMDs were made to- to hurt you. This one wouldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to, even if he somehow decided he wanted to. It’d be safe.”

“But you saw what Sarge did to May.”

“Huh? Sarge wasn’t an LMD.”

“No, he wasn’t.” Simmons agreed, her voice slightly muffled by his shirt. “But he still… he still had Coulson’s face, and he- he stabbed her, and- how could we ask her to go through that again?”

“I don’t know.” Fitz accepted, “But at this point what else do we have? If the Chronicom have the toolbox, then we need someone who knows what’s in it. We… need him.”

Simmons shuddered, and stayed silent. She could see the logic in Fitz’s words, but she was still uncertain, herself. She still couldn’t work out what the correct way to proceed would be.

“I still need more time to… consider all of the variables.”

Fitz squeezed her gently. “That’s fine. We have time. For now, let’s just focus on the Zephyr, yeah?”

Simmons pulled away from him slightly so he could see her small smile. “Yeah.”

They unraveled from each other and, together, began to focus their energies on upgrading the Zephyr, taking things one step at a time. The moral and ethical issues raised by creating an LMD replica of a dead man could take a back-seat, for now.

.

It took months but, eventually, Simmons conceded.

Enoch’s plan was complex, but it could work and, more to the point, no one else could think of anything better. They needed to push the Chronicom back, and to do that they needed to know where they would target, and they needed a method of transportation to take them to the necessary periods of time.

Though she still wasn’t willing to completely dedicate herself to the cause. Simmons had seen first-hand the results of jumping in with both feet where science was concerned, so while she was more than willing to dip her toes into the metaphorical pool, she was being careful to keep a connection to solid ground- and she was making sure to hold onto Fitz’s hand tightly, to ensure that he did the same.

So she suggested that even when they were finished creating the LMD Coulson, they not activate him. That shouldn’t be their decision. If the rest of Enoch’s plan went off without a hitch, they would ask for a second opinion, and only if their whole team was in agreement would they activate the LMD.

It was the more time-consuming option, but with a time machine, it wasn’t as if that really mattered.

Simmons looked over at the LMDs still face. “It really is uncanny.”

Fitz lifted his head from the screen he had been staring at for the past few hours, looking at her and then at the LMD. “Um, yeah. I guess so.”

“I wonder what  _ he’d _ think about all of this.”

“He’d hate it.” Fitz didn’t need to think to come up with his answer. “He’d hate that we even considered this. He’d definitely just want to be left to rest in peace.”

Simmons hummed in agreement. “You’re probably right. I just hope he will be able to understand…”

“Yeah, well, I’m not the one who’s going to have to explain things to him.” Fitz spoke with a slightly teasing tone. “Good luck with that.”

Simmons rolled her eyes, and fell silent for a while, before eventually breaking the silence again. “I do miss him.”

“...Yeah. Me too.”

“He taught us so much, didn’t he? I don’t think I ever really appreciated how much he shaped our lives until he was gone.”

“Maybe you could tell him.”

Simmons smiled gently. “Yeah. Maybe I could.”


End file.
